January 1974. Vermont marble. Dimensions: 48 × 12 × 12 in (122 × 30 × 30 cm).
Vertical Series #1, carved while I was an undergraduate at Kent State, initiated a multi-year exploration of vertical form and the relationship between positive and negative space. The work reflects my early interest in the organic abstraction of Jean Arp and Henry Moore, and particularly Constantin Brancusi’s Bird in Space. Like Brancusi, I was interested in simplifying and elongating form to suggest upward movement, while allowing the inherent qualities of the marble to remain visible.
Another, more personal influence came from my longtime involvement with snow skiing and racing during my youth. The sculpture’s crisp edges and long, flowing contours recall the clean tracks of a well-carved turn through snow—a physical sensation of balance, speed, and controlled movement translated into stone. At the same time, leaving portions of the marble in their natural state reflects my developing awareness that the inherent character of the material itself could become an expressive part of the sculpture, an idea that would become increasingly important in my later work.
January 1974. Vermont marble. Dimensions: 48 × 12 × 12 in (122 × 30 × 30 cm).
Vertical Series #1, carved while I was an undergraduate at Kent State, initiated a multi-year exploration of vertical form and the relationship between positive and negative space. The work reflects my early interest in the organic abstraction of Jean Arp and Henry Moore, and particularly Constantin Brancusi’s Bird in Space. Like Brancusi, I was interested in simplifying and elongating form to suggest upward movement, while allowing the inherent qualities of the marble to remain visible.
Another, more personal influence came from my longtime involvement with snow skiing and racing during my youth. The sculpture’s crisp edges and long, flowing contours recall the clean tracks of a well-carved turn through snow—a physical sensation of balance, speed, and controlled movement translated into stone. At the same time, leaving portions of the marble in their natural state reflects my developing awareness that the inherent character of the material itself could become an expressive part of the sculpture, an idea that would become increasingly important in my later work.
Brancusi, "Bird in Space"
